Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have tried to complete the game with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new problems, though. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the title that refuses to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.